A TEENAGER is making a healthy living as a professional video game player.

Jacob Gilbert, from Plumpton, spends between four and ten hours a day playing video games, and he’s made an amazing amount of money out of it in a short time.

The 17-year-old recently entered the Season X trios tournament, in which he partnered two other gamers, for the popular multiplayer game Fortnite.

The game is categorised as Battle Royale, where 100 players enter and the last man or team left standing wins.

Jacob and his team entered the competition and after multiple rounds of game play finished third overall.

They split the third place price of about $144,000 dollars (about £116,000) between them.

Jacob studied Business at Sussex Downs College but opted to start a career in gaming instead.

This is one of the biggest prizes Jacob has won to date, and the youngster is keen to improve his gaming.

He said: “I started earning little sums of money about a year ago.

“After I started earning a good amount of money I realised I could earn a lot more.”

As well as entering tournaments, Jacob also streams his game play online using the streaming service Twitch.

He only set up the account last month but already has more than 14,000 followers.

Jacob starting gaming at the age of eight, and it seems that the love of video games runs in the family.

His father Mark is an avid gamer and is not surprised at the success his son has had.

He said: “I thought it might be possible for him to make some money out of it.

“I’ve been playing video games for years and knew he was an exceptional player.

“It wasn’t a huge surprise to me that he has done so well.

“In prize money he’s won $70,000 since April, and that’s not even a lot in video game terms.

“He practices for hours every day and the level of skill you need to be that good is very impressive.”

Mark also accepts that his generation are not as understanding of the career that can be made out of video games, but that it is the future of sport.

Jacob, as an avid player, agrees.

He said: “It’s something to develop and people are seeing it’s growing.

“In the next ten years or so who knows what could happen.”